Testimony of Christian Courage Despite Persecution

Below is a testimony sent to The Voice of the Martyrs from VOM contacts in Iran. It shows the resilience of believers who are
sharing the gospel despite persecution

In one of the cities in Iran, there was a lady who, with so much difficulty, was able to rent a place in her city to start a tailoring business. Her desire to
start a business began because she had a family of four and was in great financial need. Her husband was a drug addict and did not contribute toward the
expenses of the family. This lady is a very committed Christian.

A few months ago, she was teaching three young ladies how to sew. She took the opportunity to share the gospel with them and started discipling them. One of
the young ladies came from a fanatic Muslim family. When her family found out about her Christian faith, they were against her faith. But this young lady was
seriously following her Christian beliefs. Things got worse, to the extent that her parents started beating her up and threatening her if she didn't leave
her faith. They told her, "If you don't return to Islam, we will keep beating you until you die." This young lady did not want to give up her
faith under those circumstances. She eventually found a way to leave her parents house and went to stay with one of her relatives in another city in Iran. The
parents started looking for her, as they could not find her. They thought she might have taken refuge in the home of the lady who was teaching her how to sew.
They had heard about her and the fact that she had evangelized their daughter. In any case, they contacted that lady and threatened her by telling her that if
she did not send their daughter back to them, they would close down her shop and would even arrange to kill her. Within fundamentalist Islam, the penalty of
someone who turns from Islam is death. That is why they had the right to kill her if they wanted to. Obviously, their daughter was not staying with that
seamstress, but the parents did not believe this.

On one of the days when the seamstress was working in the dress shop, the young woman's family, including the father, went to the shop and broke all her
equipment. A couple of ladies from the family started beating up the woman. They kept telling her that she forced their daughter to turn from Islam and become
a Christian. They eventually informed the police about it. This lady was taken to the court because of all that had happened to her. The judge considered her
to be the guilty one. He told her that there was no way of refunding all the broken items in her shop. The judge said the persecutors had the right to attack
her. The judge told the lady that if he heard about her doing evangelism again, he would punish her more severely.

This poor lady has no safety in her own city, and her equipment will no longer be useful to her. She eventually moved to another city and is under medical care
because of all the physical attacks she went through. Her house church pastor eventually heard about the difficulties she had gone through. He realized that
she needed some funds for her medical costs. The church contributed towards that. She is planning to start another shop in a different city where she is less
known and VOM is helping her do this.

Today I heard an interesting question, asked by a pastor. He said that he'd thought of the worst possible scenario any adult believer could face, and this
was it: to be told by your grown son (or daughter) that he does not believe in God - that he renounced his faith.
And then someone holds a gun to your son's head and says that YOU must renounce your faith in Jesus, or they will shoot your son, who you know is not saved
and will not see Heaven. And the pastor said he could hear people saying "well, God knows my heart, so I will just lie about this to save my son from
hell". And then the pastor said that if anyone could renounce his/her faith in Jesus this way, even for their child, then God is not first in their lives
and if that is the way they want things to remain, they need to find another church in which to keep from putting God first.

This woman, and others like her.....they remind me of the strange question this pastor asked because they are suffering beatings, torture, even death, and they
do not renouce Jesus to make the pain stop or to keep from dying right then and there. It does not seem to be in their hearts to try that trick: They do not
say "Well, God knows my heart so I will just lie and say I don't believe Jesus".

In that little Russian book that is posted in the "Dreams/Prophecies" forum, this was a major theme - people unwilling to compromise at all on even
the smallest details, even on pain of death. And the question was asked: could the Western 'Church' survive this kind of suffering? Is it CAPABLE of
standing firm in the face or torture or death or just a life filled for years with severe physical discomfort, hardship, hunger, deprivation?